News

Achron version 1.7.0.0

Released 2014/11/25

Summary: This release features improved terrain rendering, which both looks better and increases rendering performance drastically in most situations. This release also features changes to cloaking and bug fixes for replays.

Achron changelog:

changed cloakers to lose energy when under attack but are now perma-cloaked when energy is full

fixed potential consistency bug if multiple visibility queries were called on the same unit with different height ranges

added UnitListLogic to ocs.xml and migrated over all unit lists in skin language, so that all unit lists are generic and programmable

made unit box selection allow for 1/2 of the unit radius outside of the center of the unit (makes box selection easier)

added SelectPlayerNumber to skin language to allow menus to automatically select player numbers in lobby

fixed bug where multiple conditions for an animation would not use the correct resource type for conditions after the first

added SelectUnit to skin language

commands in unit lists no longer automatically select a unit when list controls are activated

visibility sharing of allies now shares queued commands

fixed bug where undoing commands could sometimes be used against adversaries' units

added ability to achronally share and revoke other players' ability to issue commands. Added SET_PLAYER_ACHRONAL_COMMAND_SHARING to Rescript and ShareAchronalCommandWithPlayer and RevokeAchronalCommandFromPlayer to skin compiler

action step modifiers now use spatial index for area effect for efficiency, and units occupy the same tile no longer erroneously occlude one another for the action step

unit selection groups are now stored on the server and saved and loaded with save files

MOVE_NON_ROTATE now does not penalize unit for rotation cost of movement

Skin variable SingleUnitSelected now set to selected unit's number

synchronized skin variables are now fully bidirectional between host and all clients

fixed bug where loading elevation maps in the level editor would sometimes crash

Achron version 1.6.4.0

Released 2014/9/1

Summary: This release contains numerous performance improvements, especially for rendering and multiplayer, as well as numerous bug fixes.

Achron changelog:

added display of number of available orders on Chronoenergy bar

fixed bug: printed error messages at start of MP games

fixed bug: C1L2 kept spamming warning message at start of level

fixed bug: C2L3 started level as dead

fixed bug: patrolling air units would bank repeatedly into same turn and get stuck

fixed bug: nuke explosion oriented relative to ground and not to cruiser

added ability for scenario monitor to call unit->NextCarriedUnit on itself

TAKE_UNIT action step now can take units even if it is being carried itself

small reduction in interprocess bandwidth in games with large numbers of units and significant unit creation and destruction; improves latency and performance across all platforms in large games, primarily multiplayer and on slower computers

added EnableClientUnitDataCache to configuration.ini. When enabled, reduces bandwidth for multiplayer and increases performance, particularly in games with many unchanging units or with slideable timeline enabled

fixed bug where rendering quick controls for unit icons in unit lists would cause a crash if a unit in one of those lists did not have any controls

fixed bug where rendering subordinate or carried unit windows would show erroneous units when no units are selected

changed menu skin and campaign file naming to make Resequence more flexible with regard to new games, and also accomodate multiple Resequence engine games installed in the same location

in Rescript, unit->Action is now accessible to non-allied units that can see the target unit

changed to use more compact representation for texture coordinate data and surface normals (minor performance increase on certain platforms and reduced VRAM usage for object data)

modernized rendering of shadow maps for terrain: significant performance improvements for shadow mapping across platforms and also fixes rendering bugs where moving the camera too low would cause terrain shadows to stop being rendered

can now select units of zero size if have alliance from unit's owner and unit's owner has visibility sharing

fixed bug where selecting a campaign using a touch screen device would cause a crash

changed from Creative Labs OpenAL to OpenAL-Soft for Windows distribution

Achron version 1.6.3.1

Released 2014/5/23

Summary: This release fixes one critical bug and one minor bug.

Achron changelog:

fixed bug: builder control submenu for building placement auto-clears unless player is holding enqueue didn't work when using hotkeys for placement

Resequence Engine changelog:

Fixed bug where incorrect values were used for player resources in determining controls and animations.

made time jump merge interval (interval at which the engine will attempt to merge a player's time jump to another timewave) configurable and added level editor skin variable ScenarioTimewaveMergeInterval

added AllPlayersStatistic to action step modifiers in ocs.xml in addition to SelfStatistic and TargetStatistic

added unit and objective details to error messages in Rescript

improved logic for forcing player timewaves to move along with present when hit either end of the allowed time window

added optional XOffset and YOffset to TerrainType in .til.xml files to change the terrain texture offset

added BoundaryFogIntensity to skin language

added MAXIMUM as a valid type for TimelineStatistic/AccumulationType in ocs.xml

fixed bug where unit controls could be activated from quick icons even if marked as disabled

granularity of timeline statistics is now customizable per level. Added ScenarioNumTimeWindowStatisticsBuckets to skin language

fixed bug with logging of string data to print log file

animations can now have more than one projectile as listed in the animation script (.as file), which is useful for multilayered explosions, smoke trails, etc.

PERFORM UI_SELECT_*UNIT now allows scenario monitor to call the perform from any time on the timeline

fixed bug where a unit calling PERFORM BESTMOVE on a unit other than itself would use an incorrect collision map for detecting collisions

decoupled animations from actions, such that actions are selectable based on unit state

added experimental hotkeys [ and ] to multiplayer skin: for selected unit(s) Undo just the previous or next commands respectively and jump to that point in time. Note: only with Advanced UI enabled and does not show expected CE usage

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where changes to the timeline made during a time wave overtake could result in a mixed game state for one time wave

fixed precipitation rendering issue on Linux and Mac

fixed bug where perf_ret_float was not set properly for PERFORM GET_GLOBAL_TIME_RATE

player's selection and control activation are now directed by command sharing flags rather than just player owner; makes controlling units of other players easier when a player has access to issue those controls

changed Linux and Mac to appropriately use ALT keys instead of MENU operation

fixed shadow rendering size bug when shadowmapping is disabled

fixed bug where terrain would black out on certain NVidia drivers when missiles were fired

fixed bug where software mesa rendering would error with an invalid rendering state after certain commands were issued

added wetness parameter to scenario monitor for snow, rain, sand, ash, etc. rendering on other objects, as well as ScenarioPrecipitationWetness to skin language, and ParticleWetness and PERFORM SET_PRECIPITATION_WETNESS to Rescript

renamed particles terms to precipitation in Rescript

Achron version 1.5.3.0

Released 2013/09/24

Summary: This release fixes many bugs and improves balance, especially for early game multiplayer. It also includes new features for sharing control in multiplayer and for creating new types of mods to time manipulation.

Achron changelog:

changed Vecgir Foundation to count as a production unit for player lost heuristic

changed start game to 'even' start game, where every species starts with 3 RPs and several base level units

fixed bug where when continuously changing time is enabled, chronoporting commands would cause the player to jump to the destination time prematurely

fixed bug where fragments of heirarchy and chronoportee lines would be rendered where they shouldn't be

added scenario option for player to propagate the timeline forward with time jumps, but can be expensive with respect to CPU. Also added ScenarioPlayerPropagateForwardTimeJumps to skin language for level editing and PERFORM ADVANCE_TIME_WAVE_TIME to Rescript.

OpenAL now properly cleans up on exit (removes error on Linux)

engine now disallows rotations around the zero vector (and no longer causes crash on Linux)

added ability to show fixed ranges (e.g., attack or special effect radius) for specified units via DistanceIndicator and AlwaysShowDistanceIndicator fields to classes in the ocs.xml and UnitDistanceIndicator in skin language

moved AnimatedHierarchyLineSpeed, AnimatedChronoporteeLineSpeed, AnimatedControlActiveLineSpeed, CameraRotationSpeed, and ListScrollSpeed from configuration parameters to skin variables so they can be changed dynamically

fixed rounding bug for absolute time indicator when mouse is over timeline

added ALWAYS as an option for flashing timeline statistics

added TimeCloudEffect togglable variable to skin language

improved rendering performance of large projectiles when shadowmapping is enabled

improved compatability of UPnP on different network adapter configurations

added ability for player to share ability to command units with another player. Also added ShareCommandWithPlayer and RevokeCommandFromPlayer to skin language, and player->CommandSharing and PERFORM SET_PLAYER_COMMAND_SHARING to Rescript.

numerous minor bugfixes to Rescript compiler

added ISSUING_PLAYER_NUMBER as option to PARAMETER_INPUT in ocs to allow the unit to know the player that issued the command

added U_SECOND_OWNER and T_SECOND_OWNER to resources types in ocs

added EQUALS_PLAYER_NUMBER and NOT_EQUALS_PLAYER_NUMBER to comparison types in ocs

evaluation types ONE and SET_TO_VALUE now use integers instead of floating point values

skin variable ShowFogOfWar can be used to enable perfectly accurate rendering of all units' visibilities (but is very slow to compute, so is only enabled in level editor)

fixed bug where terrain objects and terrain-based obstacles would not always obstruct units' attacks and visibility

removed last remnants of deprecated weapon parameters from OCS

fixed several bugs with quick icons, and quick icons now display active objective

cleaner fog of war edges (fog of war no longer rendered using extra vertex data, less redundant data passed to GPU)

added logging of player commands to detailed logging options

added keepalive messages to replay files so that an approximate total time of the replay is maintained. Resequence now exits when playing replay if replay is complete (waits for all commands to fall off the timeline if a timewave is enabled at the furthest possible past) and no players are connected

added ability to disable individual team colors and skin variable ScenarioPlayerDisableTeamColor for the option in the level editor

fixed bug where units with no HP would not display progress indicator overlays

replays now store configuration parameters, which are used only when the replay is running

fixed bug where PERFORM GET_TIME_WINDOW_START was off by one tick

fixed bug where furthest possible past timewave would get started 2 ticks late

fixed bug where carried units' attributes were not accessible as they would if they were seen on the map

updated FreeType to version 2.5.0.1

added LogPrintDataToConsole and LogPrintDataToFile to configuration that control if the print statements from rescript are logged

Achron version 1.5.1.0

Released 2013/06/18

Summary: This release adds a continuous sliding timeline position (for single player and high-bandwidth multiplayer), more statistics kept for players for replays, as well as numerous bug fixes.

Achron changelog:

fixed bug: vecgir buildings attempted to attack targets out of range

fixed bug: invisible game replay slider

fixed bug: octo splash size visual

fixed bug: QP crate explosion animation

added Slidable Timeline and Time Jump Delay options to main menu settings

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where WindowOpacity value interpretation was inconsistent - now 0.0 to 1.0 works properly in all situations.

improved accuracy and precision for QUERY VALUE in Rescript

Value and unit queries in Rescript now set perf_ret to the number of units that matched on the query

PERFORM IN_REPLAY now returns a separate value if in a replay but the replay commands are exhausted

added PlayerTimeChangeTimeoutOverrideInSeconds and ContinuousPlayerTimeChange to configuration.ini. If set to a small value (e.g., 0.1) and 1 respectively, then the player can drag the temporal position around on the timeline, but it requires either a locally hosted game or a high-bandwidth multiplayer connection to work properly.

Achron version 1.5.0.0

Released 2013/05/21

Summary: This release features a major update to Achron's underlying Resequence engine, enabling many modding improvements. It also features some balance improvements to Achron and additional timewave and chronoenergy gameplay settings.

Achron changelog:

increased nanite infect range from 16 to 20

changed RPs to autoclose when below 200HP

changed base and pod class Grekim to only use hierarchy for auto-progen if Auto-Hierarchy is enabled

fixed bug: C1L6 Shin Vir did not properly utilize their weapon causing them not to attack

Resequence Engine changelog:

removed movementDelayMultiplier from weapons - functionality can be accounted for using action step restrictions

weapon AttackSplashRadius and AttackSplashEffectiveRadius maximum values both increased from 255 to 32767. If AttackSplashEffectiveRadius is 0, then the attack is uniform over the area (no reduction over distance)

added built-in window SKW_PRIORITY_SELECTION_UNITS and attribute PrioritySelectionRank to object classes (that indicate if a unit of that type should be included in that window)

added MouseWheelPositionDelta to skin language

added HideHealthField option to object class

added action step AS_CONSUME_RESOURCE_PARAMETER that consumes the amount of resources specified by the action parameter

fixed bug where ClosestAttackablePosition and valid attackable code would yield different results due to a collision map flag not being checked properly, yielding a rare edge case where units would get stuck trying to attack when they couldn't. Also fixed other rare edge case visibility bugs

added new set of options to collision map such that each location of a unit can be designated as sensing or not (where a unit can see or shoot from)

CREATE_UNIT_ANYWHERE and RELEASE_UNIT_ANYWHERE action steps now work even if the performing unit is carried

fixed bug: using $GO_ATTACK macro in a scenario monitor would prevent hierarchies from speed matching smoothly

fixed bug: Idle Octos would move close to but not attack enemy Macrofabs

fixed bug: units would try to attack indestructable enemies

changed base multiplayer scripts to turn losers into spectators

merged absolute and relative time displays

changed "Timewave Colors" option into "Advanced Timeline UI". This setting enables timewave colors and the merged absolute and relative time display. When off, only absolute time display is shown

fixed many tooltips to keep the text within the boxes on Linux

tweaked profile creation menu to be easier to use

changed "Save Replays" setting to be on by default

made spectator statistics display grey out player stats when they have lost

Resequence Engine changelog:

major improvements in spatial index algorithms via caching. Added configuration parameters UnitSpatialIndexCacheBlockSize and TerrainObjectSpatialIndexCacheBlockSize to tune performance. Values closer to 1 rely more on CPU cache and will likely yield better performance on higher-end CPUs. Larger values will use less CPU cache less intensely and will recompute more often. Values between 1 and 30 are recommended, and the optimal value will depend on your particular computer. Defaults to 6.

improvements in pathfinding core algorithms (~2-4% reduced CPU cost for scenarios with a large number of units moving)

Resequence no longer opens up a server port if the command line port is 0; useful for running automated testing in parallel on machines with prompting firewalls.

holding in the enqueue commands key now shows amount of time to complete current actions on timeline

added flags for players having unit controls and timeline controls.

added PLAYER_ENABLE_UNIT_CONTROLS, PLAYER_DISABLE_UNIT_CONTROLS, PLAYER_ENABLE_TIMELINE_CONTROLS and PLAYER_DISABLE_TIMELINE_CONTROLS PERFORMs to change the unit and timeline controls flags. These PERFORMs take a player bitmask as parameter.

added GET_UNIT_CONTROLS_PLAYERS and GET_TIMELINE_CONTROLS_PLAYERS PERFORMs to get a bitmask of players with unit and timeline controls enabled.

added StartScenario skin variable for creating a pregame lobby for quickplay, while SpawnScenario simply starts the game with the StartScenario-loaded scenario.

Achron version 1.3.0.1

Released 2012/11/12

Summary: This release includes a number of map and balance improvements, as well as a number of bug fixes.

Achron changelog:

fixed Vecgir vehicle chronoporting costs to account for the pilot, average of 9 QP increase

fixed starting unit rotations on some SP levels

increased capacity of crates

removed artillery damage reduction for ATHCs

fixed bug: species selector remains after choosing a species

modified MAR and TwinMar:
- MAR's ground attack is now a direct projectile and NO anti-air weapon
- MAR's speed increased by 16%
- Merge time increased back to 10 seconds
- TwinMAR is now long range artillery with large AOE (splash)
- TwinMAR's speed reduced by 16%
- TwinMAR's ground attack DPS reduced from 218 down to 191

Resequence Engine changelog:

ResetCameraOrientation in skin no longer lowers camera to default height

energy field is now set to max > 255 if set to -1 or 255 in editor (previously could not have been set higher than 255, even though 1023 was allowed as max)

fixed if_indextoname error on some configurations of Windows XP

Improved Bloom efficiency

Achron version 1.3.0.0

Released 2012/10/26

Summary: This release includes numerous improvements to graphics, pre-game lobby, game balance, as well as a number of important bug fixes. Special thanks to Dominic "Shadowfury333" Renaud for his coding efforts contributing to this release!

Opened control flags to be editable in editor. First three control flags have set meanings, last three are script configurable

Set up lobby settings to be visible to all clients

Added ability to toggle AI in lobby

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where replays could not be unpaused

fixed bug where cached timeline data would not be flushed immediately in certain rare cases when total damage was reduced

fixed bug where Resequence would repeatedly send world state data to Achron clients prior to game start (would sometimes clog up connections on slower machines and slower network connections, causing a variety of issues)

fixed bug where jumping to a new spot on the timeline would not always synchronize all units properly

fixed primary bug where replays were corrupted

added synchronized modifier to skin variables to synchronize variables across the network

skin variables now populated with scenario properties when player enters the multiplayer lobby

added PlayersConnected to skin language

upgraded miniupnpc to version 1.7.20120830

resetting the camera now also recenters the camera over the mouse position

improved gracefulness of failure when OpenAL cannot be initialized - will continue to read in proper skin data

Added new shader effects for construction, birth and morphing actions

Added more detailed configuration options for graphical effects

Added Depth of Field blur effect. 0 is off, 1 is on, 2 (in game settings as "HQ") is on and maintains sharpness of in-focus objects.

Reduced strength of fullscreen sepia effect when away from present

Changed fog to have a maximum height, defaults to the maximum height level the camera can reach

Increased strength of specular highlights by a factor of 5

Increased strength of bloom on bright areas, but increased the brightness threshold for blooming

Added Bokeh-respecting Bloom when looking at bright blurry areas.

Changed cloak effect to be more visible when detected

Added and tags to select effects for ACTION_CREATE actions and actions with MorphWithActionParameter set
-Vertex Shader Effects are:
NONE: no shader effect (best for when there is a custom build animation).
CUBE_CLAMPED_SCALE: Object grows out in all directions, but is softly clamped by a growing cube. This was the old effect for all units.
XZ_PLANE_CLAMPED_VERT_SCALE: Object starts as a flat plane and grows upward, clamped by a rising plane parallel to the ground.
INV_QUADRATIC_SCALE: Object grows uniformly in all directions proportional to the square root of the current progress [0,1].
-Fragment Shader Effects are:
NONE: no shader effect (best for when there is a custom build animation).
TELEPORT: Same effect as teleportation and chronoportation.
TELEPORT_BUILD: Similar effect to teleport, but rises from the ground over time. Works best with XZ_PLANE_CLAMPED_VERT_SCALE.
BEIGE_TO_COLOR: Object starts out as a semi-transparent beige and transitions smoothly to its own colours. Works best with INV_QUADRATIC_SCALE.

Added Bloom and DepthOfField as skin variables for runtime configuration

Achron version 1.2.0.1

Released 2012/5/16

Summary: This patch release fixes an important bug in level 2, as well as two other bugs and includes additional sandbox levels. A video highlighting the changes for 1.2.0.0 can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny5YRJiwjD0.

Achron changelog:

Resequence Engine changelog:

improved resiliance against disconnects in pre-game lobby

Achron version 1.2.0.0

Released 2012/5/15

Summary: This release improves balance, improves unit aesthetics, and fixes numerous issues including the font loading issue. A video highlighting the changes can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny5YRJiwjD0.

Achron changelog:

fixed bug: game crashes due to unsupported font usage for users without Anklepants font

fixed bug: self-skipping units would not continue skipping after using a teleporter/slipgate

fixed bug: self-skip with some Vecgir vehicles wouldn't show objective line to destination

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed PERFORM GET_ENABLED_PLAYERS to return correct mask for enabled players (previously returned all as active players up until max player number)

changed gloss mapping from linear on 0-255 texturemap values to quadratic on 0.5-255.5 to make the most widely used glossmap region

minor improvement to bloom filtering

updated FreeType to 2.4.9

fixed bug where if one player shared vision with another, but the first player was allied with a third player, the second player would not see allied units within visibility range of the first player's units

global time rate changes stored in replays are now ignored when viewing replays

updated to TinyXML 2.6.2

added SelectTarget control property - selects target of control only if checked. now programmable instead of just automatically selecting if right-clicked on allied unit.

Achron version 1.1.1.0

Released 2011/12/15

Summary: This release improves balance and fixes a number of minor bugs in Achron and Resequence Engine.

Achron changelog:

fixed bug: units going into progen in a heirarchy would order additional unecessary units to go into progen

increased price of all air units (except carriers) by an average of 15%

changed Human and Vecgir buildings to gain HP during construction instead of starting with full HP

improved key binding configuration in main menu settings

updated Level Editor to respect custom UI key bindings

decreased creation time for base Grekim units by 20% (down to 16 seconds)

decreased creation time for Arcticus and Spyre by 50% (down to 5 seconds)

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where chatting in the pre-game lobby would sometimes cause a crash

fixed bug where PERFORM ENQUEUE_OBJECTIVE would exit a script early

fixed bug where engine would not save current level when writing out a save for levels that start at time other than t=0

improved internal timing code and consistency of replays

hash marks in Steam user names now converted to underscores to prevent errors

fixed bug in Rescript compiler where an error message on a line > 512 characters long would cause a crash

replays no longer re-save games

fixed bug where cinematic sounds could be disabled in certain cases

fixed bug where chronoports would be achronally undone if the destination time was changed (required time progress to be paused)

Achron Demo and Reduced Price

Tuesday Nov 15, 2011 by Chris Hazard

The public Achron demo is finally out! If you've been waiting to give it a try before you purchase, download the Windows demo here: torrent (fast), http(slow). The demo includes two levels. One is a longer tutorial level that introduces much of the time manipulation mechanics, including a time traveling adversary. In the other, you send units back through time to reinforce their previous selves to destroy a much larger army.

Along with the demo, we're dropping the price of Achron to $19.99, and with your purchase you get a code to give a full copy of Achron to a friend.

Achron version 1.1.0.0

Released 2011/11/6

Summary: This release includes a prehosting multiplayer chat, ability to change game and replay speed, a performance improvement for long games, and numerous bug fixes and balance improvements.

Achron changelog:

changed hierarchy attack-move to break formation if issued order is to a nearby destination

added toggle to pre-game lobby: subordinates can chronoport with commander using hierarchy

fixed Rescript compiler bug where chronoenergy retrieval performs were not properly specified as floats (were attempting to set integers instead)

Apostrophes in name in Steam are now changed to underscores in multiplayer for compatibility

added EngineReady indicator to skin language

double-click selection now includes all units that match type, rank, and highlight (instead of only exact class)

3D Models in DLC

Monday Oct 3, 2011 by Chris Hazard

Today we've released the 3D models, image files, etc. for all the units, terrain objects, and weapon effects in Achron. To create an importable model, follow the instructions in the model compilor document in the Achron release. You'll need to generate a .robj file for all of the 3D modelers before you can import them though (outlined in the instructions); we didn't include them because the intermediary .robj files would have made the download huge and would need to be regenerated anyway for any mod. There are many in the community who want to start making some serious mods to Achron, and we want to enable that as best we can!

We've also released an example mod template which we call "Kinablu". It's perhaps the simplest template for a 2D d-pad like game. There are a lot of things that could be done to improve it, such as making the controls much more responsive by using a set of flags to indicate the movement of the character and having the scripts set and clear those flags (rather than just changing scripts as it does now). We kept it simple for instructive purposes. Remember to extract the XML from kinablu.ocs by dragging and dropping kinablu.ocs onto ResequenceXMLCompiler.

improved double-click unit selection logic (only counts as double-click if on same unit, and less stringint criteria on selecting units outside of hierarchy)

changed cursor clipping code to attempt to reduce situations where cursor can move outside of window

mouseover now shows unit highlight

added ignore_collision_with_unit to Rescript

added WindowOpacity and WindowColoredByPlayer to skin language

removed dependency on ALUT for Windows and Linux platforms

improved edge of fog of war rendering for slopes

DLC and Source Code for 1.0.1.0

Sunday Sep 18, 2011 by Mike Resnick

Summary: The free DLC for 1.0.1.0 is now available or download.

This DLC includes all the source code for Achron unit AI scripts as well as the
source code for the original 5 demo tutorial levels and the user interface skins. The ResequenceXMLCompiler that comes with the base release
can be used to de-compile the official Achron object set file into the full source XML file (on a command prompt> ResequenceXMLCompiler achron.ocs).

The full XML with the unit AI source code from the DLC provides modders full access to all the source code behind the game enabling creation of total conversion mods.
If you already have a copy of Achron, you can download the DLC here.

Resequence Engine changelog:

improved team color rendering visuals. team colors may need to be adjusted to improve visibility (don't use too dark team colors or team colors that have extremely low values for any channel, like 0,0,255 - use something like 10,10,255 instead)

The Achron Beta Tournament was a success and a lot of fun. The champion was Kytin, but there were many fascinating strategies employed. Commentated video casts of the final games on July 17th are now all available to watch online here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=FF40C181F3D00A60, courtesy of Shadowfury333.

Also, our winner of the "guess 3/4ths of the average guess in the range of 0 to 100" bonus competition was Neveras, who guessed 32. There were two others who guessed 32 as well, but Neveras was the first. Information about your opponent is a major component to the game Achron, and this challenge was for people to try to figure out what is going on in the heads of other strategic thinkiers.

More Achron tournaments are on their way through the upcoming launch! Check them out on the Achron forums.

Achron Beta Tournament Sign-Up

Release v0.8.4.2

May 16, 2011 by Chris Hazard

This is a patch release that fixes a critical balance issue for the Vecgir species. It also contains new models for the Human factory and macrofab, and other minor fixes. Note that 0.8.4.1 was released on May 15th and had a flaw from the release process, so we fixed the release and updated it to 0.8.4.2.

Achron changelog:

fixed a multitude of typos, incorrect or missing information in control tooltips and unit tooltips

Resequence Engine changelog:

fixed bug where client would not be updated with a new unit number in certain rare circumstances involving a timewave overtake and new unit creation

Release v0.8.4.0

May 13, 2011 by Chris Hazard

This is release is primarily to fix balance issues, but also includes a number of bug fixes, the ability to override a command without resetting a command queue, improved unit visible distinguishability with team color pseudo-outlining, and added two new tile sets.

We've really appreciated all the feedback we've gotten on balancing since the 0.8.3.0 release. Performance improvements in the engine allowed us to increase the visibility and attack range, which by itself didn't introduce any new balancing issues, it did emphasize existing issues.

The good news is that this focus on balance has unearthed a number of bugs in our balancing process. One of the many benefits of treating balancing as a scientific process is that once you fix an issue once, it's usually fixed forever (unless you do something to change that part of balancing). Also, it helps us find the root cause of balancing issues. When we hear about the issues, we can then focus on exactly what is wrong rather than try some things and see what happens. This saves us a ton of time balancing the game. Sometimes it is a bug in the balancing algorithms, sometime it is a design flaw that we made when laying out units' strengths, weaknesses, etc.

The Grekim octo was the unit with the biggest balancing issue. When we ran the octo in our balancing tests, we did it in such a way that the octo's extremely short range was downplayed in the validation. The octo appeared far stronger in simulation runs than it really was in practice, which threw off its balance. Whenever there's a mismatch between the model and the actual game, that's an issue that must be addressed. However, because it was a flaw with the evaluation that we tuned the unit to, we didn't notice it until recently. This goes to show how validation is always important. The octo's HP has been bumped up. The Vecgir foundation healing rate was also improved to help early-game balance in the interrelated tangle.

The next biggest issue was the Human lancer. It was a bit too strong for its own good, which was more a design-level issue than a bug in the balancing, but the nuance was between upgraded and nonupgraded lancers. This issue is now fixed as well.

We also found some bugs in the way resources were related economically. There was a mismatch between the model and the actual game as to how quickly a resource processor or importer begins production. The balancing framework had the implicit assumption that a resource was produced instantly upon creation, which was only true for the importer. Now the balancing algorithm is correct and we changed the game so that the importer does not produce an RS immediately. This bug caused some units' prices to be off by about four percent. A four percent error in unit price of many human units may not seem like much, but when you combine it with other balancing bugs, it adds up.

While we are fixing the balance issues, we've also been doing another pass on emphasizing unit roles. For example, the tornade is now weaker versus air units to better fill the role of antiground air unit, and turrets in general are stronger against air units.

Because balance is such an important part of the game, we're planning on releasing a new build, v0.8.4.0, in the next couple days with these balance fixes. Before recently, we'd been spending most of our balancing efforts concentrating on mid and late game economies, because they're tractable for analytical techniques, versus early game where combinatorics is more prominent. Now we're putting more effort into the early game.

We've also noticed that there aren't many big maps out there yet. That affects balance as well, especially when teleprotation becomes important.

Summary: This release features improved terrain rendering, which both looks better and increases rendering performance drastically in most situations. This release also features changes to cloaking and bug fixes for replays.